Salvation Cannot Be Earned

[Jared42]

The work of Satan has always been to entice men to believe falsehoods about God and His Word. This is attempted in many ways, too numerous to list here.

One primary deception is to believe, and try to undertake, that one's spiritually eternal life and avoidance of God's Wrath by judgement can be willfully earned by doing specifically religious things. But, not so. Certainly not by membership in a church, by human declaration, or by formulated activites.

"For by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

A tip for identifying false churches is to see in their buildings evil gargoyles, freemasonic symbols, the image of the head of a serpent in their architecture, clothing with occult colors and accessories, the transfer of money for religious effect not specified in Biblical Hebraic worship, the use of the name of Lucifer in rites and prayers, vainly repetitious prescribed prayer, officials who claim to be priests conducting the actions of God, and a hierarchy which claims to have authority over the rest of of the World.

God is the source of true Spirituality and life. The human constructs of religious attainment are false.

 

[Ziggy]

Those are just the outward appearances.
Then you have the ones that are all feel good and just give me your money and God will give you a blessing, ones.
Filthy lucre sake.
The ones where you sit all prim and propper on one day a week and attack your neighbors the rest of the week.

It's easy to point a finger at the obvious, it gets a little more difficult when looking at the spirit of a church.
And truly you will know them by their fruit.
The congregation of a church is the fruit of the church. And then you have individual fruit of the members.

Discernment is important.
Hugs

 

[Jared42]

Those are just the outward appearances.
Then you have the ones that are all feel good and just give me your money and God will give you a blessing, ones.
Filthy lucre sake.
The ones where you sit all prim and propper on one day a week and attack your neighbors the rest of the week.

It's easy to point a finger at the obvious, it gets a little more difficult when looking at the spirit of a church.
And truly you will know them by their fruit.
The congregation of a church is the fruit of the church. And then you have individual fruit of the members.

Discernment is important.
Hugs

Yes. Important discernment indeed provides that the "fruit" spoken of in Matt. 7:15-20 by Jesus is referring to the proclamations made by the false "Prophets," and not by church people who sit there.

 

[amigo de christo]

The title of this thread says salvation cannot be earned . SO LET ALL THAT HAS BREATH RUN TO JESUS FOR SALVATION .
Yes indeed . Cause there is simply no other way , no other name given under heaven whereby one may be saved .
LET THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL BE SOUNDED OUT . And let the Glorious Lord be praised .

 

[Jared42]

Jesus on the Cross and Resurrected was the Mystery of the Ages revealed to mankind at the mercy of God.

No human, no angelic entity, no system of logic, no force in the Spiritual realm could have even conceived of such a powerful thing, let alone prevented it. God in His incredible majesty and love has provided that gift to any person who even on the most frail manner comes to belief and receptivity of it.

The horrific doctrines of predestination, accomplishing works of a law, the purchase with money an absolution of sin, adherence to priestly action, the transfer of personal accountability, and the denial of Christ from God in the flesh abound unto fatal error before the True and Holy Judge of the Earth.

Praise The Father for His hand of Mercy.

 

[Nancy]

Those are just the outward appearances.
Then you have the ones that are all feel good and just give me your money and God will give you a blessing, ones.
Filthy lucre sake.
The ones where you sit all prim and propper on one day a week and attack your neighbors the rest of the week.

It's easy to point a finger at the obvious, it gets a little more difficult when looking at the spirit of a church.
And truly you will know them by their fruit.
The congregation of a church is the fruit of the church. And then you have individual fruit of the members.

Discernment is important.
Hugs

Amen sister. "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Revelation 2:29

 

[Nancy]

Those are just the outward appearances.
Then you have the ones that are all feel good and just give me your money and God will give you a blessing, ones.
Filthy lucre sake.
The ones where you sit all prim and propper on one day a week and attack your neighbors the rest of the week.

It's easy to point a finger at the obvious, it gets a little more difficult when looking at the spirit of a church.
And truly you will know them by their fruit.
The congregation of a church is the fruit of the church. And then you have individual fruit of the members.

Discernment is important.
Hugs

Amen sister. "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Revelation 2:29

We don't want out candlesticks removed...

 

[Mungo]

Does any Christian believe that salvation can be earned?
I don't know of any.

 

[mailmandan]

Does any Christian believe that salvation can be earned?
I don't know of any.

Not any genuine Christians.

 

[Mungo]

Not any genuine Christians.

And who might non-genuine Christians be?
Have you any group in mind?

 

[Ferris Bueller]

Does any Christian believe that salvation can be earned?
I don't know of any.

There are various factions in the church at large that think your righteous works earn your salvation. The problem is people confuse Christians who say believers have the obligation to walk in the Spirit with 'Christians' who think they are saved on the merit of their works. Both emphasize the necessity to do righteous things, but only one of them is actually saying you have to do that in order to earn salvation.

Overall, it seems 'works salvation' isn't as much about official church doctrine as it is a matter of individuals themselves thinking that they have to do works to earn salvation. IOW, it's more of a mindset than it is an official doctrine among people.

 

[mailmandan]

And who might non-genuine Christians be?
Have you any group in mind?

There are genuine Christians and there are “nominal” Christians. There are genuine believers and there are make believers.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

And who might non-genuine Christians be?

I think the point he is making is it's impossible to be a genuinely saved Christian and believe that your works earn salvation.

Have you any group in mind?

There are specific groups who believe that salvation is earned by works. But, despite those groups, I think the Protestant church at large knows very well that salvation is not by works. That foundational truth is one of the reasons Protestants split off from the Catholic church. It is one of the defining doctrines of the Protestant church.

 

[Mungo]

There are genuine Christians and there are “nominal” Christians. There are genuine believers and there are make believers.

And who might non-genuine Christians be?
Have you any group in mind?

 

[Raccoon1010]

The work of Satan has always been to entice men to believe falsehoods about God and His Word. This is attempted in many ways, too numerous to list here.

One primary deception is to believe, and try to undertake, that one's spiritually eternal life and avoidance of God's Wrath by judgement can be willfully earned by doing specifically religious things. But, not so. Certainly not by membership in a church, by human declaration, or by formulated activites.

"For by grace are we saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

A tip for identifying false churches is to see in their buildings evil gargoyles, freemasonic symbols, the image of the head of a serpent in their architecture, clothing with occult colors and accessories, the transfer of money for religious effect not specified in Biblical Hebraic worship, the use of the name of Lucifer in rites and prayers, vainly repetitious prescribed prayer, officials who claim to be priests conducting the actions of God, and a hierarchy which claims to have authority over the rest of of the World.

God is the source of true Spirituality and life. The human constructs of religious attainment are false.

While we can't earn salvation, the Lord's people are righteous people. Remember the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, they withheld from the poor and became rich and uncharitable:

Genesis 18:26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

Righteousness is important, something I'm working on in my own life to better please the Lord.

 

[Grailhunter]

How many ways have we beat this topic to death and when you get down to it, there are so few that believe that salvation is earned.
Yes, the topic can be skewed and misrepresented.

1. Most of the biblical issues with works was with the works of the Law....in other words observing the Mosaic Laws.
2. Back in the day of early Protestantism the concern over works was mostly the works that the Catholics prescribed over salvation.
3. In our age concerns over works usually come from the Christian crowd that oppose morality or good deeds. Doesn't that sound nutz!...Christians against being good and doing good! But they do exist in large numbers.

Still another confusion factor is Judgment Day. Some believe Judgment Day effectively occurred before creation...Whether you were going to heaven or hell determined before creation....Calvinists.

Some believe Judgment Day is the day you are saved....OSAS crowd.

Some just forget about Judgment Day or do not take it into consideration as a determining point if Christians are going to heaven or not. That Christ is not a judge but more or less acts as a crossing guard for all the Christians marching to heaven.

But the fact is, the day you are saved, it not Judgment Day. But how this relates to the dreaded "works" in relation to Good Deeds is that on that day Christ will look at your unforgiven sins and your deeds and determine if you are going to heaven or hell. Everyone knows the scriptures, even the ones that do not like them. People discuss if you can lose your salvation but that is not the issue, once you are a Christian, you are a Christian. But still Christians have to get passed Judgment Day. There is no free pass or get out of jail card.

Now most Christians are going to arrive on Judgment Day with really no sins to their tally, most repent and ask forgiveness and forgiveness is theirs. Unforgiven sins are mostly lifestyle sins...you cannot repent what you intend to continue doing.

As far as judging deeds, this is where the concept of deeds come into the picture. We know that Christ is our example and He said, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? (Luke 6:45-46) Specifically the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46) and the Parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) give everyone an insight as to how all that will turn out. Still good deeds are irrelevant if you are not saved. As Christians we are commanded by Christ to do good deeds and He explains the results if we do not.

So the fact is, works or good deeds do not save you, but the Bible says it is a determining factor on Judgment Day.

 

[An Apologetic Sheepdog]

And who might non-genuine Christians be?
Have you any group in mind?

That's really an argument of semantics as there is no such thing as a "non genuine" legitimate "anything".

If then its a non genuine article then call it a clone, copy, forgery, Xerox or whatever but its not the original or "certified true copy".

There are many groups and denominations out there that follow false Christs and/or false doctrines (and sincerely believe them) but at the end of the day they are NOT legitimate Christians and never were.

 

[Raccoon1010]

Also @Jared42 with this doctrine you're describing I think it's important to point out that we should be providing works meet for repentance:

Matthew 3:8-10

King James Version

8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 

[Mungo]

That's really an argument of semantics as there is no such thing as a "non genuine" legitimate "anything".

If then its a non genuine article then call it a clone, copy, forgery, Xerox or whatever but its not the original or "certified true copy".

There are many groups and denominations out there that follow false Christs and/or false doctrines (and sincerely believe them) but at the end of the day they are NOT legitimate Christians and never were.

Any examples?

 

[An Apologetic Sheepdog]

Any examples?

Ye shall know them by their fruits.